The divorce rate in Britain has fallen to a 29-year low, official statistics
revealed, as family experts said those getting married were the most
committed for a generation.

The divorce rate fell by 2.5 per cent in 2008, the Office for National Statistics said. In 2007, out of 1,000 married people 11.8 got divorced, but this fell to 11.5 in 2008 – the lowest level since 1979.

Experts said divorce rates were falling because with fewer people marrying, and those that do marrying later, most who wed are more committed to staying together. This is the fourth year in a row that the divorce rate has fallen.

Jill Kirby, the director of the think tank Centre for Policy Studies, said: "People who marry now are less likely to divorce. As marriage becomes less and less common in families, it does mean that those that do enter are more committed."

There are fewer marriages taking place. The number of weddings is lower than in 1895 when records began.

Mrs Kirby added that with couples marrying later, they were more likely to be realistic about what to expect from married life.

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Many welcomed the figures, after some had suggested that the divorce rate would climb during the recession, which started during 2008.

Jill Goldman, a family law expert at Thomas Eggar, said: "It is true that these days most people cohabit for a while before marriage and therefore, they are that much older on average when they marry than they would have been in the 1960s and 1970s and earlier. They may be more settled and mature.

Some warned that the figures gave a misleading picture.

Claire Tyler, chief executive of Relate, pointed out that the data did not include figures on how many cohabiting parents separated.

She said: "Currently the government spends around £7 million a year on relationship support, yet family breakdown costs the country an estimated £24 billion per year.

"Politicians have recently been hotly discussing what makes people get married. These figures show that it isn't just about getting couples up the aisle – what's really important is that relationships last."

Mrs Kirby said: "The greatest source of family breakdown is cohabiting couples, not married couples. These figures prove that making a public commitment does make it less likely that the family will break up."

The ONS figures also indicated that many more divorced couples go on to remarry only to get divorced once again. Thirty years ago 11 per cent of men who divorced were doing so for the second time. That proportion has nearly doubled to 20 per cent.